A recent WIRED article entitled “Popcorn Time’s Piracy App Is Sneaking onto iPhones” reads: “Popcorn Time has exploded over the last year as a free and likely illegal alternative to Netflix, with no monthly fees, more content, and in some cases better quality video.” In case you don’t know, Popcorn Time is built on the Bittorrent protocol. And many – if not most – Popcorn Time users have never heard of Bittorrent. Sound like a predecessor for Bitcoin’s killer app? Swap out a few words and see: “Fill-in-the-blank-Bitcoin-app has exploded over the last year as a free and likely illegal alternative to state-sanctioned banking, with no fees, more payment options, and in some cases built-in merchant discounts.” Peer-to-Peer Brings the Fear The evolutions of Bittorrent and Bitcoin closely mirror one another. Bittorrent was launched in 2001. Over the years, it’s weathered tiresome attacks by Hollywood’s political wing, the MPAA – attacks that were pushed all the way to the ISP level. Internet service providers began attempting to throttle torrent traffic, largely in response to legal threats from the MPAA. End users were even “fined.” The company that maintains the Bittorrent protocol, Bittorrent, Inc., went so far as signing a legal …